Babylon 5 2-16: In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum

Episode:

38

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

|

Air Date:

10-May-1995

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm putting the previous DVD back in to watch In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum.

Babylon 5 first aired with the occasional episode out of order, mostly due to the visual effects taking ages, and if you watch the episodes off disc or Amazon you get to experience the authentic continuity weirdness this causes (which is pretty minimal to be honest, it's not really a big deal). But I'm following the J. Michael Straczynski approved Lurker's Guide Master List order, which enhances the narrative by pulling Knives forwards and slotting this in before Confessions and Lamentations, leaving this block of episodes looking like this:

15 - And Now for a Word
17 - Knives
16 - In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum
18 - Confessions and Lamentations
19 - Divided Loyalties

By the way, this is one of the few episodes to get a DVD commentary by producer jms and if you're watching B5 for the first time I'd recommend leaving it until you've seen the whole series. In fact all the special features seem to have been produced under the assumption that if you've bought the discs you're probably already a fan. Which is fine, but they could've at least included a spoiler warning. Like this:

WARNING, I'm about to write some massive SPOILERS all over this review! But only for this episode and the ones that precede it. Which includes Knives.

Babylon 5 2-17: Knives

Episode:

39

|

Writer:

Larry DiTillio

|

Air Date:

17-May-1995

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Welcome to Ray Hardgrit's Sci-Fi Adventures, which is now entering its fourth year! And yet I'm still not done with Babylon 5 season two. It's like I'm a showrunner on a modern TV series or something.

Obviously my plans have been terrible and something needs to be done, so I've got a new plan for 2019: I'm going to be writing just one review per week and I'll be switching my attention between Sci-Fi Adventures and Super Adventures in Gaming every two months. So that's 8 or 9 episode reviews here, then I switch over and write about 8 or 9 games, and so on. Unfortunately that only gives me 26 weeks a year to write about science fiction; just enough to cover a single season of one 90s TV series (or one episode each from 26 different series I suppose).

So I've decided to drop my weekly Doctor Who, Deep Space Nine, Discovery and The Orville reviews and focus on getting through Babylon 5... with something different thrown in every now and then so I don't have to rename the site to Ray Hardgrit's Babylon 5 Adventures. It's not that I don't like those other series, it's just that B5 is a serialised story that I'm already a third of the way through and I'd like to get it finished.

The last episode I reviewed (back in February 2018) was And Now for a Word, so if you go by the airdate, DVD and Amazon Prime episode order I should be watching In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum right now. But I'm following the Lurker's Guide Master List which puts Knives before it for continuity reasons, which makes this block of episodes look like this:

14 - There All the Honor Lies
15 - And Now for a Word
17 - Knives
16 - In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum
18 - Confessions and Lamentations

All this really means is that I'll not be including any SPOILERS for In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum, because that's what I'm watching next time, though I will be spoiling everything in this story and probably earlier episodes as well. Assuming I can still remember anything (it's been ages since I watched them).

Doctor Who (2005): Series 11 Review

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about Doctor Who's 37th season, or series 11 if you're just counting the stories aired since it came back in 2005. Really they've could've drawn another line right here and called it Volume 3, Series 1 with how different the show is behind the scenes and on screen now. It's practically a spin-off of itself: the Star Trek: Discovery of Doctor Who, though I think this regeneration was necessary and the change didn't come a moment too soon.

This was the season that Jodie Whittaker took over from Peter Capaldi as the show's first madwoman in a box and Chris Chibnall took over as showrunner, so it was fairly monumental in that regards. But were the episodes anything spectacular themselves? If you've read my individual episode reviews you already know my answer to that, but I might as well say it again now.

I should also mention that I'm not going to shy away from dropping huge SPOILERS here, for everything from The Woman Who Fell to Earth to the season finale The Battle of Rancon Az Kolor Razkol Ab Kosor Ranschool As Kloplot... Resolution, and no doubt a few of the earlier episodes too.

Doctor Who (2005) - New Year's Day 2019: Resolution (Quick Review)

Episode:

851

|

Serial:

287

|

Writer:

Chris Chibnall

|

Air Date:

01-Jan-2019

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Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I hope you weren't looking forward to that Doctor Who series 11 review I promised, because this ain't that. I got distracted with other things and ran out of December to put it in. I believe I also mentioned that I might not be reviewing the New Year's special because I'd written about enough Doctor Who already, but that was before they revealed that this was going to be the only episode aired in all of 2019. How am I suppose to leave it out now? What sort of a monster would go from An Unearthly Child to the very latest season (skipping a year or ten along the way) and then stop exactly one episode before the end?

I kind of assumed that we were done with year-long breaks in between seasons now that the series has a different showrunner who's not trying to write Sherlock at the same time, but I guess that's just how the series is these days. The only difference is that in the Chris Chibnall era we get the one-off episode on New Year's Day instead of Christmas Day, because after thirteen consecutive Christmas specials they've used up every possible way of shoehorning Christmas into a Doctor Who story. Which means no more Christmasified opening titles! No opening titles at all in fact, for perhaps the third time ever in the series' history.

Resolution is also unique among Thirteenth Doctor stories as right now it's the first and only episode to allow anything major from an earlier season to return. Series 11 was very much about the new, with new actors, monsters, writers, a new visual effects house and a new composer, but this episode brings back director Wayne Yip! Also the antagonist might be a bit familiar too but I'll not spoil that here.

All my SPOILERS are safely contained below the next screencap, so continue at your own risk.

Doctor Who (2005) 11-10: The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos (Quick Review)

Episode:

850

|

Serial:

286

|

Writer:

Chris Chibnall

|

Air Date:

09-Dec-2018

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I would've been writing about Doctor Who series 11's epic two-part finale, but they decided to end the season with a relatively low-key one-part story this year so I'm stuck writing about that instead.

I feel like I should be talking about how The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos is actually the first and only one-part finale in the revival series, as modern Doctor Who seasons always get ridiculous at the end, but I checked and it turns out that The Wedding of River Song and The Name of the Doctor both packed their absurdity into 45 minutes, so it ain't true.

But I can talk about its singularly awkward name, because Chris Chibnall's gone against 55 years of tradition here. You get one made up word per Doctor Who title, that's the rule, and unless I've overlooked something it's never been broken until now. Mostly because writers typically gravitate towards titles that people are able to remember, spell and say. They really tripped up a lot of podcasters with this one.

Anyway, I won't be going through the full episode scene by scene this time, I'm just sharing observations and opinions here, but if you continue reading past this point you'll find yourself knee deep in SPOILERS for this story and maybe earlier ones as well. The Pirate Planet jumps to mind. Castrovalva too, but ain't no one wants me to go off on a tangent ranting about Adric and block-transfer computation so I'm pretending I didn't think of it.

Doctor Who (2005) 11-09: It Takes You Away (Quick Review)

Episode:

849

|

Serial:

285

|

Writer:

Ed Hime

|

Air Date:

02-Dec-2018

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Is it just me, or is the title text getting smaller with every new episode this season?

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm giving you my opinions and observations of It Takes You Away, the third episode by writer Ed Hime. I don't mean his third Doctor Who story, I mean the third episode he's ever written for TV, as according to IMDb all he's been credited for before this was a couple of episodes of Skins. He's also written for radio and theatre though apparently. I'm pretty much as clueless about him as I have been about any of the new writers this season to be honest.

Though one thing I do know is that showrunner Chris Chibnall will be back next time for the series finale, then the New Year's special, and probably the series 12 premiere after that, so it'll be a long while before we see any episodes by new writers again.

There will be SPOILERS beyond this point for this story and maybe earlier ones too. Just giving you a heads up.

Doctor Who (2005) 11-08: The Witchfinders (Quick Review)

Episode:

848

|

Serial:

284

|

Writer:

Joy Wilkinson

|

Air Date:

25-Nov-2018

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm sharing my thoughts on The Witchfinders, episode 848 of Doctor Who.

Doctor Who's had female writers and female directors before, but it's rare for an episode to feature both like this. In fact its only happened twice before in the series' history, both in the classic series: Enlightenment and Mark of the Rani. And Mark of the Rani was co-written by a guy.

Here's some other trivia which will get more interesting years from now when people have started forgetting it: Amazon Prime subscribers accidentally got to see the episode three days early in place of Kerblam!, which just happened to be an episode criticising Amazon. I guess now we know that the company's not run by witches at least.

There will be SPOILERS for the episode and earlier ones below, and if I'm feeling particularly precognitive I might even spoil future stories too! For instance, I'll tell you now that the long awaited four-part Star Trek: Destiny / Doctor Who crossover in series 15 will be a bit of a let down, but The Fourteen Doctors will be the best multi-Doctor story since Day of the Doctor.